The adage “A new technology is rarely superior to an old one in every feature” can be supported or denied when you look at the pros and cons of camera technology today.
Digital cameras today, in several ways are superior to the more traditional cameras, if you are on-the-go. Cameras are compact,they are more versatile to use with easy pushbotton user-friendly technlogy. They also have the ability to view immediately what you have composed in your lens, so that they can be deleted or re-captured -- what ever suits the photographer.
The more traditional 35mm camera, well, you had to wait for the film to be developed and by then the opportunity for some shots was long gone, never to be repeated. I feel that being able to manipulate manually the depth of field, the shutter speed or the bigger zooms (say, up to 200-300mm), gave more creative abilities to the photographer. However for todays society of instant gratification,the new point n shoot camera's are soooo much smaller and versatile compared to the older, bigger and heavier 35mm cameras...
However the quality of the photos, I feel, is superior in the 35mm film used rather than the megapixils of the digital camera.. This is particularly noticable when a photo is blown up.. the new megapixils photos become blurred and distorted.. This is due to the digital zoom, mega- pixel thing...
A pixel is an tiny, minute, square of colour, of which millions contribute to the visual images on a screen of, say a computer or camera. One megapixel contains one million pixels, so a camera with 10 megapixel's, equates to 10 million pixels. The more pixels, the higher definition of the image or photo..
A plus for digital is the ease at which you can hold, point, and press the button in order to take the desired shot... This was noticeable in my fieldwork 2 placement, where groups of physically/mentally impaired people used digital cameras regularly as a fun occupation... They loved the ease and instantaneous image of the digi camera!!!
Digital images can be stored, on PC harddrives, CD's, USB memory sticks where they can be transferred at will - to your distant family or friends on the other side of the world, to people you havent seen in eons!!
Flickr is an online file sharing site to upload, file/store then share photos if you so desire.
Images can be manipulated, although I cant do it.. My son can edit, crop photos and do all sorts of extrordinary digital wonders, that blow me away...Sooo cool!
Ethical issues of course arise when images are taken of people without their knowledge or consent, this is a violation of privacy. There are issues also of ownership, copyright and then a myriad of legal implications..
Occupational Therapists use digital cameras and imagery in a number of ways -- such as in posting current information of their services,on their weg-sites such as Organisation of Therapy and Rehabilitation Services (e-info@otrs.co.nz) or to support funding applications and reports with photos of clients,equipment, or to justify housing modifications.
From a personal prospective - during my FWP2, I observed first hand, the benefits of using digital cameras as an occupational tool and activity of a group, used to record their perspective. They then chose, allocated prizes for the most creative, etc and displayed these photos in a gallery along the wall. They all took immense pride in being in the photo as well as taking the photo image. Photos, were also used there as a daily record of clothes worn, etc for safety purposes. (Gracelands, Aratika).
During this Tutorial we also examined Flickr.com, which is a free on-line file-sharing site, where one can upload, store and share photos. Photo-sharing has protective measures by which one can share with other users but only if you want to. Flickr.com also has the creative capabilities to make cards, framed photos, photo-books andediting capabilites for stored and filed photo images. Picasa is a similar photo storage site - http://picasa.google.com/
Bebo and Facebook are similiar social networking websites, to flickr.com, where photo images can be stored and shared with friends.
We also learnt a bit of usefull terminology!!! Like what is the difference between ...
The difference between a digital and optical zoom is that the optical zoom brings the image closer to the viewer using the same number of pixels, while the digital zoom actually reduces the number of pixels as you zoom in,enlarging a portion of the photo. Digital zoom diminishes the quality of the photo.
No comments:
Post a Comment